Second Sight: Arcane Society, Book 1

In financial straits and on a sure path to spinsterhood, Venetia Milton thought her stay at the remote, ramshackle Arcane House, far from society's prying eyes, would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engineer her own ravishment. She was there to photograph the relics and artifacts collected by a highly secretive organization, founded two centuries earlier by an eccentric alchemist.

Copper Beach: A Dark Legacy Novel

Within the pages of very rare books, some centuries old, lie the secrets of the paranormal. Abby Radwell’s unusual psychic talent has made her an expert in such volumes - and sometimes taken her into dangerous territory. After a deadly incident in the private library of an obsessive collector, Abby receives a blackmail threat, and rumors swirl that an old alchemical text known as The Key has reappeared on the black market.

Hidden Talents

Witt's End is in trouble. The small town of artists is at risk of disappearing from the map if Serenity Makepeace can't expand her small grocery store into a mail order enterprise to sell her neighbors' handcrafted goods. High-priced start-up advisor Caleb Ventress was intrigued by Serenity's impassioned letter. A small town grocer wasn't high profile enough for him, but her request earned her a meeting. And Calebs' attraction to her earned her a few more.

Crystal Gardens: A Ladies of Lantern Street Novel

Novelist and professional companion Evangeline Ames has rented a cottage in the outskirts of Little Dixby, far from the London streets where she was recently attacked. Fascinated by the paranormal energy of nearby Crystal Gardens, she finds some pleasurable diversion in sneaking past the wall to explore the grounds. And when her life is threatened again, she instinctively goes to the gardens for safety. Lucas Sebastian has never been one to ignore a lady in danger, even if she is trespassing on his property.

Eclipse Bay: Eclipse Bay Series, Book 1

Eclipse Bay has grown and flourished on the rugged Oregon coast, where the shore can be rocky and forbidding, full of sharp cliffs and hidden coves. But this small town is also filled with secrets as treacherous as the landscape - and rivalries as fierce as an ocean storm.... Their grandfathers hated each other. Their fathers hated each other.And as the next generation of Hartes and Madisons, Hannah and Rafe are expected to hate each other too. But Hannah Harte - a successful wedding consultant with a skeptical view of marriage - remembers the long-ago night on the beach....

Light in Shadow

Zoe Luce is a successful interior designer in the Arizona town of Whispering Springs who's developed an unusual career specialty - helping recently divorced clients redesign their homes, to help them forget about the past and start anew. But Zoe knows that some things can't be covered up with a new coat of paint. And when she senses that one of her clients may be hiding a dark secret, she enlists P.I. Ethan Truax to find the truth.

Absolutely, Positively

Unconventional Molly Abberwick, trustee of her late father's scientific foundation, is mad enough to fire her new consultant, Dr. Harry Trevelyan. A brilliant expert on new inventions, the handsome Harry irritates Molly to no end with his preposterous insistence that they have an affair - and that it could be planned, predicted, and run like a science project. But just when Molly is ready to let him have a piece of her mind - not her heart - she discovers that the eminent Dr. Trevelyan is not what he seems.

Deception

Once Olympia Wingfield had been free to devote all her time to her true passion: the study of ancient legends and long-lost treasure. But now, with three hellion nephews to raise, the absentminded beauty has very little time for research. Which makes it seem all the more serendipitous when a handsome stranger strides into Olympia’s library unannounced and proceeds to set her world to rights.

Falling Awake

A red-hot, suspenseful novel about a free-spirited dream researcher - and the gorgeous man who brings her dreams to life. When a dream researcher and a government agent meet, a waking nightmare begins. A suspicious hit-and-run leads them into a perilous web of passion, betrayal, and murder.

Lost and Found

Cady Briggs is very useful to Mack Easton - her expertise in art and antiques helps his shadowy, low-profile company, Lost and Found, find missing treasures for high-paying clients. But as Cady's beloved Aunt Vesta warns her, being useful to a client is one thing - being used is another. But now, Cady must turn to this man she isn't sure she can trust. And instead of tracking down missing masterpieces, they'll be hunting down a killer.

Truth or Dare

Zoe is an interior designer with a unique sense of style. But even more uncanny is her sense of what's going on under the surface, the secrets a house can hold. At the moment, though, Zoe isn't concerned about a client's space. She's more worried about what's going on in her own house in Whispering Springs, Arizona, where she lives with her new husband, private investigator Ethan Truax.

Scandal

With her reputation forever tarnished by a youthful indiscretion, lovely Emily Faringdon is resigned to a life of spinsterhood, until she embarks on an unusual correspondence and finds herself falling head over heels in love. Sensitive, intelligent, and high-minded, her noble pen pal seems to embody everything Emily has ever dreamed of in a man. But Simon Augustus Traherne, the mysterious Earl of Blade, is not at all what he seems.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much

The New York Times best-selling author of 'Til Death Do Us Part transports listeners to 1930s California, where glamour and seduction spawn a multitude of sins. At the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel on the coast of California, rookie reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool. The dead woman had a red-hot secret about an up-and-coming leading man, a scoop that Irene couldn't resist.

Moonshadow: Moonshadow, Book 1

Recovering from a shooting, LAPD witch consultant Sophie Ross leaves her job and travels to the UK to search for answers about her childhood. When she encounters a Daoine Sidhe knight of the Dark Court, she becomes entangled in an ancient hatred between two arcane forces.

Affair

Affair introduces Charlotte Arkendale, an industrious young woman who provides a very special service. Wealthy women hire her to check the qualifications of their suitors. When one of Charlotte’s loveliest clients is murdered, she hires the darkly handsome Baxter St. Ives to be her assistant and bodyguard. But as they pool their powers of deduction and begin to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder, they also uncover the force of a powerful, and mutual, chemistry.

Trust No One

It's no coincidence when Grace Elland finds a vodka bottle next to the lifeless body of her boss, motivational speaker Sprague Witherspoon. The bottle is a terrifying - and deliberate - reminder of the horrors of her past. Grace retreats to her hometown to regroup and tries to put everything she’s learned about positive thinking into practice - a process that is seriously challenged on the world’s worst blind date. Awkward doesn’t begin to describe her evening with venture-capitalist Julius Arkwright.

When All the Girls Have Gone

When Charlotte Sawyer is unable to contact her step-sister, Jocelyn, to tell her that one her closest friends was found dead, she discovers that Jocelyn has vanished. Beautiful, brilliant - and reckless - Jocelyn has gone off the grid before, but never like this. In a desperate effort to find her, Charlotte joins forces with Max Cutler, a struggling PI who recently moved to Seattle after his previous career as a criminal profiler went down in flames - literally. Burned out, divorced and almost broke, Max needs the job.

Publisher's Summary

Life is tough these days for Lydia Smith, licensed para-archaeologist. Seriously stressed-out from a nasty incident in an alien tomb, she is obliged to work in Shrimpton's House of Ancient Horrors, a very low-budget museum. She has a plan to get her career back on track, but it isn't going well. Stuff keeps happening.

Take the dead body that she discovered in the sarcophagus exhibit. Who needed that? Finding out that her new client, Emmett London, is one of the most dangerous men in the city isn't helping matters either. And that's just today's list of setbacks. Here in the shadows of the Dead City of Old Cadence, things don't really heat up until After Dark.

I bought a bunch of paranormal books on Audible's big Halloween sale. I forgot that adult romances are big on sexual details. This story was fairly interesting inspite of the detailed sex. I guess I'll stick with YA for the most part from now on. I like more adventure with just a little romance on the side, rather than sex being the main event.

I saw in another review that Jayne Castle writes under the name Amanda Quick. I have read 2 one of her series there, and now, knowing that information, I can say that I do understand why I felt familiar and comfortable right away with her story telling style. I did like the characters and the story. I just was not clued in on this whole "thru the veil" thing, and I think I felt like I should have read another book about this place they are at before this book. One that would let me know some background.

Good start at world building. A little backstory on how humans got there and built over an older race. How they resonate with certain artifacts. Should have fleshed out a bit more detail on the world, it's workings and history.

After Dark: Ghost Hunters has a compelling title and summary but falls flat as a whole. My only positive note is that Joyce Bean gave an excellent performance. Unfortunately excellent narration couldn't save this book. I would recommend the Dresden Files as an enjoyable alternative.

-The Good-1. Joyce Bean gives an excellent performance.2. The audiobook was on sale.

-The Bad-1. The characters are cookie cutter, with some completely unnecessary.2. The romance subplot feels awkward and forced, not built up over time.3. The world and environment lacks substance. Instead, the author takes everyday items and puts an "alien and edgy" sounding word in front of it. So you end up hearing about Rezz Tea, Rezz'ing up a car engine, feeling so rezzed, etc.

This book shows potential but comes off much more as a fan-fiction than anything else. As there are more books in the series I can only hope that the problems of this book were corrected. Unfortunately, I won't be continuing the series.

Prior to this series, Jayne Castle aka Jayne Ann Krentz had written other futuristic romances which I also liked. This novel is the first in a long running series that are all interconnected. A common thread is the strangely adorable pets called Dust Bunnies who are very selective when forming a bond with a human. The Dust Bunny selects and moves in. The bond is psychic.

Lydia is alone in the world except for her Dust Bunny Fuzz. She is trying to restart her career after being lost in the underground alien tunnels (Fuzz rescued her) and being fired from her university job.

She now works at a small museum that is more sideshow than a museum. She gets her first consulting job from Emmet London. He neglects to tell her many things. They are attracted. They argue a lot because Lydia is no doormat. Together, they solve the case and grow closer despite Lydia's distrust (justified) of ghost hunters.

This a very nicely done unabridged audio version of the book. Joyce Bean is a fine voice actor. I like this audio so much that I have listened to it many times. I love a happy ending.

If you like this book, get there is a follow on book about Lydia and Emmet, After Glow, that is as good as or even better than this one. With another happy ending.

Love this series by Jayne Castle aka Jayne Ann Krentz in her "sci-fi, futuristic " nom de plume. Her world-building is fascinating-Space colonists cut off from Earth when "the Curtain" closed. Archeological ruins from an unknown "alien" culture that has since disappeared. Her characters are interesting and quirky and have developed extra-sensory powers while still being human, not "supernatural". All while still having values. A murder mystery with suspense. Romantic relationships that are neither prudish nor a sex-a-thon. Not a heavy read & you feel good at the end. What's not to like? It's got it all! Highly recommend.

Listening to the adventures of Lydia Smith and Emmett London in their story of romance and mystery . Joyce Bean narration bought the world of portals, ancient worlds, psychic talents , plots and subplots to life for me and it felt a little like I was listening to a delicious soap opera that left me with a happy grin on my face having been brought totally into that world I realised the narrator allowed me to forget the little irritation that I might imagine if I was reading the words on the page and just allowed me to have fun.

After listening/ reading to a few more of A Jayne Castle/Jayne Ann Krentz /Amanda Quick books I realised I really rather like the worlds she creates through the Harmony series and the Arcane society that I had previously judged a little harshly after listening to my first Jayne Castle book Midnight Crystal. While these books are definitely not challenging or sometimes ask you to stretch the boundaries of your believability I can say with a heartfelt smile they are a fun listen/read in that order for me and one of my guilty pleasures.

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